Today marks the 99th day since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Thankfully, the leak has been capped temporarily, but by no means is that a permanent fix.
Our fight is just beginning.
At the end of August, south Louisiana will commemorate another anniversary. Aug. 29, 2010, will mark the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which changed the lives of thousands of people.
Louisianians have picked up the pieces and for the most part moved on, but there are still silent neighborhoods that may never hear children playing in them again.
Americans lost sight of Katrina a long time ago, and if the oil spill isn’t fixed permanently soon, we could suffer the same fate again.
Last week, a public service announcement was released by Women of the Storm, which is a group of New Orleans women who joined together after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to advocate the needs of Louisiana.
They are at it once again and this time they are using some celebrities’ help.
Their “Be the One” video stars Sandra Bullock, Drew Brees, John Goodman, Peyton and Eli Manning, just to name a few. I’m sure many of you have seen the video already, but if not check it out on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or NOLA.com. Many of the celebrities in the video list the South as their primary or secondary homes, and they can see the damage that these disasters have caused us.
The video is the launching point for the “Restore the Gulf” campaign, which is encouraging everyone to sign a petition asking for more federal money to restore the Gulf Coast ecosystems because of the damage from the BP oil spill.
The Women of the Storm plan to deliver the signed petition to Washington in the fall. But that’s not soon enough. By the time that petition is delivered, the problems of the Gulf Coast will be on the back burner again. We don’t have time to wait until the fall to ask the federal government for more money.
With hurricane season in full swing, there’s no telling what is in store for the Gulf Coast in weeks to come. Luckily, Tropical Storm Bonnie passed without much damage, but any time the Gulf is threatened with an approaching storm, precious days are lost where the leak could be fixed.
We need help and action now.
The scariest factor about the oil spill is we haven’t seen the worst effects from it. The immediate impacts have been loss of human and animal life and a lack of seafood. But what else will happen in the next five years?The livelihoods of Gulf Coast residents are at risk for generations to come. If a family of shrimpers can’t catch shrimp to sell, then they have no income — nothing. They have to do something else to provide for their family, but what? When you have generation after generation doing the same job, it’s not easy to pick up, leave and start something new.This is the main difference between hurricane damage and oil spill damage for coastal families. People could rebuild after water and structural damage because they knew they had a job and an income to go back to.
But now, with no money coming in, how can they afford to stay? What is keeping them here?
Keeping the Gulf Coast in the forefronts of Americans’ minds will be tough, but it needs to be done. The fight is not over once the leak is sealed permanently. We need to continue to fight until our coast is restored and people can see that south Louisiana is worth keeping in their future.
—-Contact Brittany Davis at [email protected].